Choose the option that best combines the two sentences into one simple sentence:
Dev unlocked his phone. He saw twenty missed calls from his mother.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Unlocking his phone, Dev saw twenty missed calls from his mother.
Joining with an -ing opening:
- When the same person does two actions one after the other, the first action can become an -ing phrase.
- “Dev unlocked his phone” becomes Unlocking his phone. The doer, “Dev”, comes right after the comma.
- The order of the actions stays the same: first he unlocked the phone, then he saw the calls.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Unlocking his phone, twenty missed calls from his mother were seen by Dev. — Incorrect. After the comma comes “twenty missed calls”. The opening phrase now seems to say that the calls unlocked the phone.
Option 3: Unlocked his phone, Dev saw twenty missed calls from his mother. — Incorrect. The option says “Unlocked his phone”. Dev did the action himself, so the -ing form “Unlocking” is needed.
Option 4: Seeing twenty missed calls from his mother, Dev unlocked his phone. — Incorrect. This reverses the order of the actions. Dev unlocked his phone first and only then saw the missed calls.